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Tuesday, February 20, 2018

First Sunday in Lent: Spring training

2/18

Ready for chirch...

On the first Sunday of Lent, I come to Good Shepherd Faith Church in the shadows of Lincoln Center. Here is my reflection:I was going to start today with some words about one of my favorite things: spring training. But I can't do that. i have to start by saying something about the shooting at Parkland in south Florida. My first reaction was muted...like, oh this again. Sadly showing how common this has become...but I don't know...those Parkland students are amazing...they're calling us out...and we're hearing from teachers...they're talking about a national walkout on April 20th....it's way past time for us to confront this reality....way past....and it is truly shameful....there is simply no excuse to allow the power of guns in our society to continue...this is that classic moment...Reinhold Niebuhr always said we needed to preach with the Bible in one hand and the New York Times in the other...OK....last week it was that first sign of spring: "Pitchers and catchers report..." And tomorrow the position players report...spring training....Last year I got to go for the first time...one of those bucket list experiences...my own personal retirement gift to myself...I hope to get down again next week...it's kind of a magical time...snow up here...down there? Palm trees, sun and baseball....it's a time when anything seems possible...maybe a first look at Giancarlo Stanton...maybe Russell Wilson gets in the game..it's all about getting into shape...getting ready....So what does that have to do with Lent and Jesus and...?Yes..it's the first Sunday in Lent...when I was growing up, as a Presbyterian in a majority Catholic culture, we always looked at Lent with suspicion. The whole idea of " giving something up for Lent" was especially suspect..creeping papism..it started on Ash Wednesday, which always left me feeling very lonely as all my classmates wold disappear, and then return with Ash crosses on their foreheads..(later at West Park, I came to appreciate the cultural significance of Ash Wednesday..I loved the day a bus driver raced in from the nearby bus stop to receive ashes and then raced back out again to his bus...) This year we all began at West End...it was at Yale I enjoyed the blessed Henri Nouwen ( who taught us about the Wounded Healer) distributing ashes....So let's take a look at Jesus...In Mark,look how fast it goes from baptism to temptation....and also note that this " the Spirit immediately drove him out to the desert..." It is the same spirit that just descended on him in baptism, that just declared him "...the Son, the Beloved..." that Spirit drives him to the desert....and you have to read everything else from that..It makes you question who is Satan in all this? ( Matthew 4: 1-11 is so much more detailed in his story of temptation in the desert..) it's almost like he's working for God....there no Manichean heresy here two powers struggling against one another....it's almost like Satan is a drill sergeant..Jose Saramago, that great Portuguese novelist, in his the Gospel according to Jesus Christ, places this story in the middle of Genesseret..pages of the suffering that will follow after Jesus..and Satan is willing to give up come back if there could only be another way..and God responds there is no other way....it's like Satan is getting Jesus ready....spring training...if you're gonna get baptized, embark on a mission, you've got to be ready...you can almost hear Satan at the end of this story in Matthew saying, "He's good to go...." So done right, Lent is our Spring Training (and this year the regular baseball season season begins Easter weekend...)And so we have questions:What is your calling?What does it mean to wrestle with demons? What are your demons?What is wrestling with Satan?For Jesus this wrestling follows baptism. In our tradition, Lent was a time of preparation for baptism. it precedes.... What is Satan for us?In the Jewish tradition, Satan is like the prosecuting attorney, that accusing voice, the voice that says we'll never make it , we're no good, that power that won't allow us to forgive ourselves, to believe it is real...Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber says the church's most important task is preaching the forgiveness of sins because so few of us believe it...What are our temptations? My friend Steven Phelps says we are all criminals....Remember...all Jesus' temptations are good things...but they are short cuts...and one thing I experienced in ministry...short cuts never work, they're just not possible....So we've got Lent....remember those New year's resolutions? How many broken already? Well Lent is another chance...Lent is not a giving up but a taking on...a spiritual disciplineOur LentOur spring training Time to get ready.....As is the custom at Good Shepherd Faith, a lively discussion followed...and beautiful music by the former football player, now opera singer tenor Ta'u Papua (http://www.taupupua.com/)Lent has begun.